Romanticism and Classicism Essay Example for Free

Romanticism and Classicism Essay Both Romanticism and Classicism deal with a certain psychological truth – however, they use different techniques to show this truth, and, consequently, show different sides of a persons psychology. The Romanticists take a lyrical stance – they explore a persons emotions and subjectivity. Mostly, this is done in poetry, because poetry generally provides more creative leeway and is more metaphorical. Like any short form, it needs less consistency, but is allowed to focus more on emotion and whatnot. A poem can be created only to portray a feeling or a group of feelings. For instance, Yeats poem â€Å"The Second Coming†, even though its first-person perspective is only seen directly in two lines, the feeling of apocalyptic dread is spread throughout the whole poem, from the first lines ( Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; /Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, ) to the last ( And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,/Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? ). This poem is completely dedicated to showing a single aspect of emotion. It does not require development, but rather elaboration and metaphor, both of which Yeats provides plenty. Moreover, the rhythm and sound of the rhymed word itself is used often to convey an emotion. (Incidentally, Romanticist prose, which is not covered here, also uses these techniques much more than Classicist prose). See Yeats again: â€Å"Turning and turning in the widening gyre† already creates a spinning sensation of something huge, the repetition of the us and is makes the line sound as if it were turning itself. The sounds and rhythm strengthen the feelings the words already evoke, in this case – that of the world turning in on itself – and when in the next line, â€Å"The falcon cannot hear the falconer;† we are faced with a relatively small bird, the illusion of a transition from microcosm to macrocosm is evoked. Portraying subjectivity is easiest to do from a first-person position, because it allows the poet and the reader both to get into the head and soul of the character. This is shown well in most Romantic poetry. For instance, Owens in his descriptions of war depicts the horrors from his own, first-person view, and attempts to make the reader sympathize by creating images that invite a certain empathy, in this case – a feeling of horror at things two people in dialog fear together. An especially powerful example is present in Dulce et Decorum Est (If in some smothering dreams you too could pace /Behind the wagon that we flung him in, /And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, /His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin;). It can be done from the third-person, however. This is generally done from selective omniscient, by showing things from a chosen characters viewpoint. Emotion can also be shown just by writing about the actions of the person, but this is generally used in the dramatical poetry, which is more common in the Classicists. Mostly, narrative is used for the Romantics when there is an actual need to show not just a feeling, but a transition from one emotion to the next. A real master of this is Joyce, who, while not precisely a Romanticist, knows the Romanticist technique well, and utilizes it to his own means. Joyce shows us a change in Gabriels behaviour. Specifically, he utilizes a very interesting technique: in the beginning, he does not give us any insight into Gabriels thought: when we first see Gabriel, he is just one of the characters. There are many others, who may be just as important – although the fact that everyone is waiting for Gabriel and his wife is a certain foreshadowing of the fact that ultimately he will be the main character, it is still far from certain at this point. (â€Å"O, Mr Conroy, said Lily to Gabriel when she opened the door for him, Miss Kate and Miss Julia thought you were never coming. †). As the story progresses, however, we gain gradual insight into Gabriels thoughts as they become more and more mixed in with his deeds, and by the end of it, we are completely in Gabriels mind (â€Å" It hardly pained him now to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life. †) Any outside factor is a symbol for the Romanticists, a tool for self-identification. The difference between them and the Classicists in this case is that for any Classicist the outside world with its obstacles is objective – even when a hero acts or reacts, they are working in an environment. For a Romanticist, environment is optional. In fact, most of them prefer to relate directly to matters such as life and death, to notions which would be deemed abstract, and many avoid the situations in which we face these notions in life. This is well-seen in Tennysons â€Å"In Memoriam†: â€Å"I held it truth, with him who sings /To one clear harp in divers tones, /That men may rise on stepping-stones /Of their dead selves to higher things. † How precisely this stepping is done, Tennyson does not show. But it is these symbolic transitions, the way a human being relates with eternity, that make up the real life of a human being. The situations one faces in life are mere shadows of this real, symbolic life. This is why when the Romanticists use colorful metaphors, and another great lot of textual technique in an attempt to transfer to the reader what can only be felt, to incite an emotional state, this is not only to evoke a feeling – feelings are the meat and drink of life, like actions are to the Classicist. It is this sensual experience that is real, and a transition in feeling, its ennoblement is seen as a more valuable – a more ontologically real, if you will – change than any actions that change ones material status. For an example, let us turn to Yeats once more, and how he describes this spiritual transmutation upon his death, in â€Å"Sailing to Bysantium†: â€Å"Once out of nature I shall never take/My bodily form from any natural thing,/But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make/Of hammered gold and gold enamelling†. In essence, Romanticism submerges us in the characters subjective viewpoint, and attempts to make us believe the characters actions by placing us in the characters place. They externalize the characters feelings by projecting them unto our own. For instance, Coleridge in his â€Å"Kubla Khan†, gives an image and a feeling which it evokes in his lyrical hero, and attempts to reproduce that same relationship within the readers own soul: â€Å"A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw :/It was an Abyssinian maid,/And on her dulcimer she played,/Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me/Her symphony and song,/To such a deep delight twould win me,† The Classicists attempt to portray objective reality as far as they are able – be it by directly addressing real-world issues, or by exploring them through story-telling. A direct discussion on a real problem is shown in Mills essay, where the narrator steps as much away from any personal arguments as possible, and attempts to appeal only to objective facts, and even if his own experience is used, it it always as de-personalized as possible. Nearly any quote from his essay is demonstrative. â€Å"The generality of a practice is in some cases a strong presumption that it is, or at all events once was, conducive to laudable ends. This is the case, when the practice was first adopted, or afterwards kept up, as a means to such ends, and was grounded on experience of the mode in which they could be most effectually attained. † As we can see, he speaks in the third person as much as humanly possible, making general observations about the nature of humanity and society. The Classicists who work in fiction generally work in the narrative, because it is easier to portray outside factors from the neutral point of view of a narrator, rather than from the subjectivity of one character. The preferred mode is pure omniscient. We can see this if we return to Joyce, who in the beginning uses a fully omniscient mode , to show us a multitude of people and detail, to give us a panoramic view and a feeling of objectivity before he begins to focus on the internal evolution of Gabriel. â€Å"Lily, the caretakers daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat, than the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the bare hallway to let in another guest. †) Joyce uses this technique to set the stage, to give the mood in which the transformation happens. I believe (though I am not sure whether this is the view your professor has on the subject) that the difference between Joyces story and the â€Å"classic† Classicists is that for him the objective world is neither a place to act in nor a tool of transformation: it is just a backdrop, a setting in which interaction occurs. However, selective omniscient can be used, as well – as long as one gives enough detail that the character notices, but does not classify as important, while, in truth, they play out their part, and a reader – always from his birds eye view – can notice this. A good example is Mansfields â€Å"The Garden†, which utilizes a selective omniscient point of view. Mansfield uses both details that are general, that create the mood both for the character and the reader, (â€Å" That really was extravagant, for the little cottages were in a lane to themselves at the very bottom of a steep rise that led up to the house. A broad road ran between. True, they were far too near. They were the greatest possible eyesore, and they had no right to be in that neighbourhood at all. †), and those that are exlusively thoughts of Laura (â€Å"Is mother right? he thought. And now she hoped her mother was right. Am I being extravagant? †) Some of Mansfields most interesting technique is how she shows the transition of moods through the difference in details Laura notices. Compare the beginning of the story (â€Å"Then the karaka-trees would be hidden. And they were so lovely, with their broad, gleaming leaves, and their clusters of yellow fruit. They were like trees you imagined growing on a desert island, proud, solitary, lifting their leaves and fruits to the sun in a kind of silent splendour. ) and near the end of the story, when she learns about the death (â€Å"Now the broad road was crossed. The lane began, smoky and dark. Women in shawls and mens tweed caps hurried by. Men hung over the palings; the children played in the doorways. A low hum came from the mean little cottages. †) It is still a beautiful sunny day, however, Laura is in no shape to notice it. This is the kind of subjectivity that is allowed in Classicist literature: a subjectivity that is a reaction to the objective world. Classicism is versatile enough to allow it, but it never allows this subjectivity to take completely first place. At best, like in Mansfields works, it has an almost equal role to objective actions. Classicism can even work from completely a first-persons view, as Virginia Woolf shows. But here it is emphasized that the author is subjective but trying to transcend this subjectivity: even in the first person, she attempts to step out of conventional social roles – even those she takes on herself and look at things rationally and reasonably, and, possibly, with irony. It is a curious fact that novelists have a way of making us believe that luncheon parties are invariably memorable for something very witty that was said, or for something very wise that was done. But they seldom spare a word for what was eaten. † Woolf takes many liberties with her texts, and experiments often with styles and conventions – such as the listing of various foods, or the ironic descriptions of conversations, or unconventional views on known topics. Like a philosopher, she brings to attention things that are rarely noticed (â€Å"Have you any notion of how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe? †). But all of these are things that exist in the real world. You will find few abstractions in her works, and even those have a grounding in some sensual experience that she has. She is very skeptical indeed of any matter of pure spirit, indeed, she does not believe in them in the common sense of the word. (â€Å"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. The lamp in the spine does not light on beef and prunes. We are all probably  going to heaven, and Vandyck is, we hope, to meet us round the next corner—that is the dubious and qualifying state of mind that beef and prunes at the end of the day’s work breed between them†) This is what attempted objectivity from the first person looks like. Mixed modes work well, too. Conrads â€Å"Heart of Darkness† is a great example of this: he often gives descriptions which could be both from the third person and the first person (â€Å"The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails ), and even those he gives explicitly from the first person are always shown as attempting to step away from direct emotional perception, such as in the scene where the hero thinks about the reason why the savages are cannibals. (â€Å"I would no doubt have been properly horrified, had it not occurred to me that he and his chaps must be very hungry: that they must have been growing increasingly hungry for at lea st this month past. †) This is very typical of Classicism, to look for outside solutions to ones feelings, and, instead of feeling something directly, to attempt to reach feeling throughout experience and logical thought. A Classicist cannot emphasize directly; Conrad could not have written something like, â€Å"I saw the hunger in his eyes and realized with a sharp jab of the conscience that, had I been so hungry, I would have been no different. † A Classicist will only portray the internal logic of his heroes, he cannot attempt to have them experience something they did not, even in the imagination. They remain captured by their own lives. What is important about Classicism is that it is almost always in prose. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, such as Browning, but they are few and far between. Poetry adds an extra, undesirable dimension to a text. It is the dimension of subconscious influence – by the sound of the words, by the rhythm. Classicism, of course, cannot step completely away from using techniques that influence not so much by meaning, as by style – so long as the work is a work of literature – but they do their best not to emphasize on the technical style of things. Even if they use technique, it is as simple as possible. The Classicists wish the text to be transparent, as opposed to the many colors of Romanticism. Conrad is, once again, a good example here: his descriptions are dynamic, yet very simple: â€Å"One evening as I was lying flat on the deck of my steamboat, I heard voices approachingand there were the nephew and the uncle strolling along the bank. † Complete contrast to the falling and raising of the Romantic worlds, Classicism uses Occams Razor as much as possible. Classicism likes to use a dramatic stance: it generally does not tell us about what the person is feeling, but rather attempts to allow us to see for ourselves from the persons actions. For instance, Browning in his poetry – a rare example of a dramatic approach in it – does not give us feelings directly. Instead, he gives us actions and thoughts related to those actions, not self-reflection: like when he writes about the painter Fra Filippo Lippi (Or Lippo Lippi, as he calls his hero))(â€Å"/Zooks, whats to blame? you think you see a monk! What, tis past midnight, and you go the rounds,/And here you catch me at an alleys end/Where sportive ladies leave their doors ajar? †) This says more about the character of the frater than any self-reflection upon the nature of necessity to go out at night would have. For the Classicists, it is an emphasis on that only the deeds of a person are actually real, and the thoughts essentially matter only as stimuli towards action . This is an externalization of the characters psychology by projecting it upon the world.